Teal Ducklings

Bird News

The black-necked grebe was still on Ibsley Water as was the black swan. The little ringed plover pair now seems to have only one chick, although it is growing fast. The best bird news of the day came from Mockbeggar Lake where John Levell was waiting for the carp catchers to come ashore and had two notable sightings. The first was a flock of crossbill leaving Cherry Orchard and heading off west, July is the best month for crossbill and they pretty much always fl;y west. The second sighting was much more interesting though, a duck teal with a brood, this is one of the hardest species to prove breeding as they are so secretive. It seemed she was moving her ducklings away from the carp catchers and just happened to take them right past John on the bank.

Moth News

A good catch of over 70 species but nothing really exciting, a dark tussock was the first of the year and a particularly fresh one so it made a decent picture. Although not rare they are much less frequent than their close relative the pale tussock.

I was ragwort cutting again this afternoon, it was too hot and humid but I have only a few days before I am off for a bit so every hour counts. The long grass around Ibsley Water was again alive with Roesel's bush cricket and meadow grasshopper. There are good numbers of meadow brown and gatekeeper about now and on the flowers at the Centre peacock, comma, red admiral and so I'm told, as I still have not caught up with one, silver-washed fritillary.